Research firm Forrester has claimed it expects 112.5 million US adults to own a tablet by 2016, with the sector's consumer base equalling more than a third of the country's population of adults within the next few years.

According to the latest report published by the firm, US tablet sales will hit 292.5 million between 2010 and 2016, assuming the average user replaces their device once every two years.

Back to the present

Surveying the current lay of the tablet landscape, Forrester's consumer surveys show a market dominated by Apple.

While iPad accounts for 73 percent of the market, no other brand of tablet is able to claim more than 6 percent.

According to the report's author, senior analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, "Price is becoming a more important factor in tablet choice. But it's not the only factor or even the primary one.

"It's about the services — what you can do with the device, which is why Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble have succeeded in the US where pure hardware plays have failed."

Tablet fever

"We now expect 112.5 million US adults to own a tablet in 2016, which will equal 34.3 percent of US adults," Rotman Epps explained.

"In Europe, the numbers are similarly impressive, with an expected 105.7 million tablet users, or 30.4 percent of consumers 16 and older, in the EU-7 by 2016."

But Rotman Epps claims tablets are still seen as a luxury item, and even at a low price, not all consumers feel they can justify the purchase.

"Forrester's data shows that the top reason consumers don't buy tablets isn't because of price or technology - it's because they say 'I don't think I need it.'"

[source: Forrester]